Nevertheless, I want to at least do one day just for fun. It’s not that today is going to be particularly interesting, but I want to take a snapshot of where I’m at now at work.

5:30a-8:30a
Yes, I start my day at 5:30a, the better to maximize my time with my project teammate in Vienna, Austria. Overnight email is light because the project is running smoothly; the only troubleshooting comes from a user who needed to reset his password and from a Space confirming they had corrected a spelling error in a patron email.

Since it’s the first of the month, it’s time to start collecting statistics from January 2013. I pick off the easiest stats to collect first: the Google Analytics stats and the Primo stats. They take literally minutes to do. The other stats sets I collect, the database usage stats and the patron account stats, take more time. Regarding the former, we have 30 databases across 10 providers, so it takes roughly 45 minutes to collect all those stats.

Regarding the latter, we built our own account management system, and while it is a simple and straightforward system to manage accounts, we didn’t design it with statistical collection in mind. So I have to go into the record for each Space and total up the number of accounts. A Space’s record is broken down into pages of 50 accounts, so if a Space has 230 accounts, there will be five pages: four pages of 50 plus one page of 30. However, that record includes the accounts for the staff, plus the general login for computers in the Spaces. So those 230 accounts may include, say, two staff accounts and one general account. Since I’m compiling data through January 31, 2013, I also have to subtract any accounts created on February 1. It’s straightforward math (number of pages x 50 + number of accounts on last page – February accounts – staff/generic accounts), but I’m doing this for each Space, and there are a lot of countries where we have Spaces.

Needless to say we’re working on improving the stats collection. Anyway, once I finish the Google Analytics and Primo stats, I start on the patron account stats, which I will work on until it’s time for me to head to the office. (I got up to Guinea.)

We’re getting a dusting of snow, which is normally not a big deal, but as A. Camden Walker from Capital Weather Gang points out, the DC area seems to be handling snow even worse than usual this year. Also, at 7:17, the Metro Twitter account announced that a Red Line train is offloading due to a brake problem. Really, it’s not going to be a great commute today, so I aim to get in for a 10:00a call (with my teammate in Vienna, as it turns out).

By the way, did I put my son’s boots on backwards when I got him ready to go to school? Yes. Yes I did.

10:10a-10:50aThe train I was on malfunctioned at Dupont Circle. Normally I walk from Dupont Circle to the office, and today I had no choice! Ultimately, I was 10 minutes late to the meeting.

10:50a-12:45p
After the meeting, I finish off the patron statistics and worked on the database statistics. Almost every single database has their stats for the previous month ready on the first of the month. There is one database, however, that gets around to publishing its stats anywhere from five to 10 days into the next month, maybe even as late as 20 days (although that hasn’t happened for a few months now). They are a bane of my existence, but a minor bane, sort of like The Thompson Twins.

12:45p-13:30pLunch! Also, ever plan a call and no one showed up? So that happened.

13:30p-14:00pIt’s my first time cataloging with our newly upgraded Voyager system (8.2.0, you know)! It doesn’t feel much different, aside from the prominently displayed Suppress from OPAC button. PRESS TO SUPPRESS.

Meanwhile, I also reply to an email about a patron having trouble logging in and to a post on our Facebook page asking how to join. I email my teammate (AFTER HOURS) about a new site we need to add to our EZ Proxy settings.

There are a bunch of emails about a meeting with a vendor next week, which I promptly file in the proper folder. I may even remember to delete those emails after the meeting is over…

Also, I am alerted to the face that 1. FC Union Berlin beat SV Sandhausen 3-1 so I take a moment to crank this:

14:00p-14:30pI spent some time editing a new topic guide one of our interns wrote for the website. And by editing, I mean, reading and being happy because it was so awesome.

14:30p-15:00pYou know, editing the monthly stats report and just kinda keeping one eye to the window to catch a glimpse of my retiring boss as she leaves the office for the last time.

Then it’s time to head up to make SOUP! Delicious soup for such a winter’s day.